AUBURN, Alabama -- Auburn's special teams races face arguably more uncertainty than other spot on the roster.

A pair of unknowns, redshirt freshmen Daniel Carlson and Jimmy Hutchinson, are the lead candidates to replace Cody Parkey and Steven Clark at kicker and punter, and a wide range of players have gotten their chances in early return work.

Three days into spring practices, Auburn's coaching staff is only in the beginning stages of those races.

"It's a lot of instruction right now as far as that goes," Tigers coach Gus Malzahn said. "When the bullets start flying live, you'll be able to evaluate those guys a little bit more than you can when they're just versus air."

Carlson and Hutchinson have big shoes to fill, part of an Auburn system set in place before Malzahn to have a kicker and punter on campus and learning a year before the Tigers need replacements.

"They're out there punting and kicking every day," Malzahn said. "We're going to do a little bit more live stuff next week."

Corey Grant's touchdown return against Tennessee means he'll get a chance to replace Tre Mason as Auburn's primary kick returner, but in the first practice's open media viewing portion, he had company from Cameron Artis-Payne, Rudy Ford and Sammie Coates.

Ricardo Louis, Jonathon Mincy, Jermaine Whitehead, Robenson Therezie, Marcus Davis, and newcomer D'haquille Williams were back on punts, although Malzahn said as many as 10 players got a chance under a punt in the first week of spring ball.

"It's hard to single anybody out right now," Malzahn said Saturday. "I could probably be a little more specific at this time next week when we'll get a chance to see some guys return some in a live setting. ... Right now they're just catching on air."